PANAJI
Hiring of 285 engineers in entry-level positions of Junior Engineer (JE) and Technical Assistants (TA) initiated by three crucial government departments -- Electricity, Public Works Department (PWD) and Water Resources Department (WRD) -- has hit a roadblock following the political row over routing government recruitment of non-gazetted positions through the Staff Selection Commission.
The demand to permit department's to recruit by themselves instead of routing the process through the SSC was one of contentious issues discussed in the Delhi meeting both Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had with the ruling BJP top leadership.
The development has virtually put a question mark over the scope and jurisdiction of the SSC in government recruitment.
Meanwhile all the three departments -- Electricity, PWD and WRD -- which together shoulder the responsibility of crucial utilities of power and water supply have been facing massive technical manpower shortfalls and are struggling to cope with day to day operations.
While the Electricity department has a shortfall of 89 engineers, 85 JEs and 4 TAs, the PWD lacks 124 engineers -- 101 JEs and 23 TAs.
The WRD on the hand has a shortfall of 72 engineers, including 39 JEs and 33 TAs.
All the three chief engineers, CEE Stephen Fernandes, PCE (PWD) Uttam Parsekar and WRD CE Pramod Badami had formally sent "requisitions" to the SSC to hire the engineers, urgently needed in their respective departments.
The departments were hoping that the recruitment would materialise by this year-end but with the latest row following the Sawant-Rane tussle over the SSC, it could get indefinitely delayed, top officials in the Electricity Department and WRD said.
Meanwhile, a senior engineer in the Electricity Department said they are managing the day-to-day operations with engineers juggling between the geographical locations of their multiple charges.
"Also, the leeway we have to hire 'apprentices' also helps us tide over the manpower shortage. At least one or two apprentices are hired in a sub-division where needed," the engineer said.
The WRD, meanwhile, is in a slightly better position with the enormity of its day-to-day operations supervised by the JEs and TAs at a much lower scale than the Electricity Department, a top official said.
